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Last year, Dendritic Arbor landed on many people’s radars with not just one, but two fantastic releases. Then again Dendritic Arbor is not your everyday, run of the mill metal band and their music sets them quite apart from the crowd. Combining the harshest elements of black metal, grindcore and noise, the band manages to create music that is extremely abrasive and yet cohesive at the same time. The two releases they had last year, ‘Romantic Love’ and ‘Sentient Village // Obsolecent Garden’ EP are a collection of well written and layered tracks. The grindcore / black metal tracks have something new to reveal in each listen and the unrelenting sonic attack seems to be brimming with seething anger from the band’s side.

After listening to these albums multiple time, I knew I had to talk to the band and we went ahead and did just that. The guitarist / vocalist Adam Henderson and bassist Tom Bittner took the time to answer my questions and here’s how it went.

First off, no numbering. I don’t feel any of these albums are comparable, they each stand out on their own merits at what they do. And also, I don’t want to start this by saying what a great year this has been for music.

2015 was in my opinion just as good as the year before that and the year before that and so on…

There´s never been a golden age of music, the majority of music put out every year is mostly shit, but if you look hard enough you can find some gold here and there. And indeed I found some really good stuff this last year as well.

It’s quite surprising that we made it to 2016 in one piece. 2015 turned out to be a huge downer of a year with so many tragedies marking the highlights and on a personal front too, it was a tasking period. But speaking purely in terms of metal releases, 2015 is easily one of the best years with chock full of releases spanning the entire metal spectrum. Picking out the top releases in such a year is a task that is easier said than done. For last year’s list, we did a countdown of the ten records which I felt were the best. This time though, the list has been expanded to include 15 albums and the albums are not numbered. The reason behind this, is that each of these albums is as good as the other and the numbering should not be indicative of the quality of the album. With that in mind, here is what made 2015 so memorable in my opinion.

Once upon a time, it used to be easy to guess a band’s origin based solely on their sound, especially in the death metal circles. Each scene sported a unique characteristic which would immediately give away a band’s land of origin. In today’s scenario, globalization has not spared metal and it becomes harder to discern the location based on sound. Take the case of Insision for example. Based on their brand of death metal, one would be inclined to say they’re from the Florida scene. In actuality, the band hails from Sweden and have been churning out straight up, old school brutal death metal since 1997. The music here is straight forward and has absolutely no frills. Insision are all set to unleash their 4th full length, titled ‘Terminal Reckoning’ after a break of 8 years on Sevared Records.

The Indian culture has very rich mythologies and philosophies that can aptly serve as the theme for a metal album. Ironically, there are more bands outside India that take inspiration from these themes than bands within India itself. The latest band to do so, is the one man atmospheric black metal outfit Raventale from Ukraine. The band’s upcoming full length ‘Dark Substance of Dharma’ deals with the philosophies of karma and dharma. Playing a style of doom flavoured atmospheric black metal, the music has a transcendental feel to it and is perfect for talking about these subject matters.